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Michelle's Blog

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I am delighted to introduce Zonehigh’s first guest blogger, Jon White, professional golfer and Easy Swing Golf Director. In addition to being a PGA member and AAA‑accredited golf coach, Jon recently achieved Zone Coach certification. Bryan and I have had many enjoyable lessons with Jon and have found his Easy Swing method and great teaching skills make golf so much easier to play!

Read more about Easy Swing and Jon’s experience golfing in the zone, which Jon introduces below.

Happy Zoning!

Being In the Golf Mind Zone

You have probably heard elite, successful sports people say that they were “in the zone” during peak performance. What they really mean is that they were living in the moment, with no thoughts of the past or future. They know that they have developed a good technique, they have done the practice and they are trusting of that preparation and are now just letting things flow.

To help me with my mind zone, I recently completed a five-day Zone coach training program conducted by peak performance, emotional master and presence coach, Michelle Stanton. To say this was enlightening would be a complete understatement. I have never experienced such a feeling of being completely at peace and present in the moment.

A key to the techniques that Michelle teaches is their simplicity – much the same as our philosophy for golf with Easy Swing. I am already finding the Zone techniques extremely beneficial not only to my own game but also to my golfer students as part of my golf lessons.

As soon as we dissolve the thoughts about what we don’t want to do (future) or how we feel after our last shot (past), an amazing transformation begins.

I am tremendously excited about sharing with you not only the simple Easy Swing golf techniques, but also simple thinking techniques to help you experience the wonders of finding your peak performance mind zone.

Among the many benefits of looking and feeling younger is the sense of freshness and vitality you experience, which can lead to many positive outcomes both at work and in your personal life.

One of the most effective ways to look and feel younger is to become happier.

When you are happy:

You stop frowning

Your face relaxes

Your mouth turns up in a smile

Your eyes light up

Your body feels lighter

You look forward instead of down

The world looks brighter

People are attracted to you and bask in your company

Opportunities come knocking on your door

You feel free to try new things and embark on new adventures

Therefore, when you are happy, you look, feel, dress and act younger than your years.

Unfortunately, human beings as a race have never been taught how to just be happy.

We’ve been taught that happiness is a reward for achievement – something we have to earn. We’ve been taught to think “I’ll be happy when…

… I get my dream home, the new car, boat or latest electronic toy

… I get my dream job, project or promotion

… I find my ideal partner or make my partner appreciate me more

… The children, my staff, my peers and my boss show me more respect

… I finish this task

But what about NOW?

The conditioned belief is to sacrifice how you feel now so that you will feel better tomorrow. Unfortunately, if you keep postponing your happiness until tomorrow, it will always be tomorrow that you expect to be happy, not now. All you will have in the here and now is the habit of postponing happiness instead of happiness itself.

To be happy now is a decision you can make.

If you have made it, here are 5 simple yet powerful tips on how to be Happy NOW.

1. Smile

Smile at everyone you see. When you smile, endorphins flood your brain and make you feel happier. If you are not used to smiling, practice smiling at yourself in the mirror every morning and every night before and after you brush your teeth.

2. Give Thanks

Throughout the day remember to give thanks for the little things that support you in life. Say thank you out loud, say thank you in your mind, send thank you emails or cards – gratitude makes your heart sing.

3. Say “I love you”

Take a leaf out of the song “Oh What a Wonderful World” and say “I love you” every chance you get. Say it out loud every day to members of your family and quietly in your mind to others when you meet them or think of them. Love makes you feel happy.

4. Suspend your judgment

Give people the benefit of the doubt. Being kind and generous makes you feel happier than being right and feeling righteous.

5. Be quick to apologize and forgive

Be quick to say “I’m sorry” whenever you feel you have hurt someone, and be quick to forgive others as well as yourself when you have judged them. It is human to make mistakes, and forgiveness brings you peace and makes you feel happier.

By using these tips every day, not only will you look and feel younger, you will also infect everyone you encounter with happiness.

Whether you thrive or struggle to survive in the current market will depend largely on your ability to manage your state of being – how you FEEL every day and throughout the day. To go against the trend and forge ahead while the herd languishes behind takes courage, determination, persistence and skill.

There are three keys to extraordinary success, regardless of circumstances:

First, you need to be very clear about your purpose – know where you want to go and why you want to get there. Second, your process (knowing what to do and how to do it) needs to be spot on. And most important of all you must have emotional mastery to get in the Zone, the state also known as FLOW, where serendipity, synchronicity and extraordinary outcomes become your everyday experience.

If you feel disheartened, demotivated, anxious, frustrated, annoyed or just “blah,” your mind will be filled with negative and limiting thoughts, making it difficult to boldly envision a worthwhile vision and direction for your business, difficult to make positive decisions or to take action.

Success in ANY market is infinitely possible and is limited only by your beliefs.

The following analogy explains the power of a limiting belief:

Did you know that an adult elephant weighs somewhere between four and seven tonnes and can carry the weight of around 130 human adults? Yet in Asia elephants are tethered to a tiny picket that it could easily uproot. How is this possible?

It is possible because captive elephants are tied up as babies to a strong stake. They pull and tug, but hard as they try they cannot free themselves. So they give up. As they grow older, with the same measly rope around their leg, they no longer need to be tied to the strong stake; they have surrendered to the erroneous belief that they can never be free.

Like elephants, humans are also conditioned to be so much less than they are capable of being, and many never realise their full potential. It is said that most of our foundational beliefs were formed by the time we were five, when we did not have the capability to exam these beliefs for truth.

The result is that many of us continue to hang onto beliefs that do not serve us anymore, now that we are adults – beliefs such as “I am too stupid, too ugly, too fat, too weak and definitely not good enough.” By believing that we are victims of our circumstances, it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy!

A cell biologist and former Stanford University scholar, Bruce Lipton explains in his book “The Honeymoon Effect” that when your brain perceives love [for instance], it secretes neurochemicals such as dopamine, oxytocin and growth hormones into the blood, and therefore you are generally healthier and more alive when you’re in love. In this state you are also more present and capable of success.

On the flip side, when we are miserable or see ourselves as victims of circumstance, we flood our bodies with chemicals that are counterproductive to health, wellbeing and success.

Because we are said to spend around 90 to 95 per cent of our time operating from our pre-conditioned subconscious and experience about 70,000 thoughts every day, trying to change our beliefs by using positive affirmations is an exhausting, ineffective and inefficient exercise.

It is much more effective to go to the root cause of beliefs and thinking and address it there. How you FEEL (root cause) will affect what you believe and what you think (by-products of how you feel).

If you are feeling depressed, you believe the world is a dark and hopeless place. As a result, your thoughts are negative, dark and hopeless. If you are feeling happy, you believe the world is a bright and optimistic place. As a result, your thoughts are positive, bright and optimistic.

One feeling brings with it thousands of associated thoughts. So would it not be more useful, effective and efficient to work at the level of feeling instead of the thoughts?

If you wish to thrive while others struggle to survive, learn to dissolve your negative feelings whenever they arise. When the negative emotions are gone, you will spontaneously experience positive ones. Love is always present at the heart of who we are. We don’t always feel love because the feeling of love is frequently obscured by negative emotions that have not been dealt with (dissolved).

One very effective and efficient method for dissolving negative emotions is the “Welcome, Allow & Feel” method. I covered this methodology in my May 31 post, below, titled “Dissolve the Sunday Night Blues.”

It was Father’s Day in Iran on 24 May 2013, and the huge auditorium was full of managers from all over Iran who had decided to spend Father’s Day at an International Conference on Modern Management!

It was obvious that Iranians are a people with an enormous hunger for learning and a dedication to personal growth and development.

Before coming to Iran to speak on “How Winners become Champions” at this conference, my perception of Iran and Iranians was pretty much shaped by the media portrayal of the “Axis of Evil” after 9/11.

When I mentioned that I’d be travelling to Iran, the unanimous reaction was “Why are you going there? Aren’t you concerned for your safety?”

People are the same the world over.

I am delighted to report that it has been a pleasure being in Iran. The Iranians I met were kind, generous to a fault, gentle, loving and peaceful. The hospitality I was treated to was second to none.

Once you by-pass the trappings of clothing and superficial cultural differences, you find that Iranians are the same as people the world over. Their concern for their family, relationship difficulties, career aspirations and their desire to cultivate a happy, harmonious and productive team at work are no different to people of any other culture.

Perception is NOT reality.

I’d like to illustrate this point further by telling you a story of two boys, Tom and Gary, who grew up in the suburbs of Adelaide, in South Australia.

Tom grew up with his grandfather who had been incarcerated in the Changi Prisoner of War camp in Singapore during the Second World War.

When his grandfather returned to Australia he carried a hatred for the Japanese soldiers who had mistreated him, and passed on this hatred to his grandson, Tom, by telling him stories of his ordeal.

Eventually, Tom grows up, becomes a young man and meets me – a Korean Australian woman who could easily pass for a Japanese.

What does Tom see when he sees me? Seeing through the perception lens of hatred, Tom would obviously see a monster he’d prefer to avoid.

On the other hand, Gary lived next door to a happy Chinese family and spent his childhood playing with the girl with pigtails next door.

What does Gary see when he sees me? Seeing through the perception lens of fond memories, Gary would see a nice girl – someone he might like to get to know better.But what am I? The monster or the nice girl?

Obviously neither!

Tom and Gary only just met me. They don’t really know who or what I am beyond the visual and verbal cues interpreted by the beliefs that make up their perception lenses.

Your beliefs (pre-conceptions) colour your experience of your world. When you explore this in depth, you come to realize that the world you live in is a projection of your belief system. Put in another way, your world is a mirror reflection of your beliefs:

If you don’t feel good, when you are OUT of the Zone, remove your perception lenses by debunking your limiting beliefs and experience a new world of peace, love and joy – where creative ideas flow into opportunity and success feels effortless!

Do you find it difficult falling asleep on a Sunday night or waking up in the early hours with your mind racing?

This anxiety, worry or fear is most common among high achievers but many others also suffer this distress.

As Monday approaches, the mind starts to consciously or unconsciously review the week ahead. It becomes anxious about deadlines, targets, difficult bosses, colleagues and customers and fearful that you are not good enough to achieve all that is expected!

The spectre of failing, losing the job and ending up alone and destitute, sits deep in the subconscious, creating a feeling of dread that can’t be consciously explained away.

Waking up on Monday morning feeling tired and anxious, even before the week starts, does not make it easy for you to be enthusiastic and positive about doing what is required and achieving outcomes above and beyond the call of duty.

The best way to dissolve this fear and anxiety is by using the “Welcome, Allow & Feel” methodology that has been recorded as the “Pain Free” tool. The methodology is explained below.

How the “Welcome, Allow & Feel” tool works

A sensation is felt in the body and identified as pain (physical: such as a headache or emotional: such as a feeling of anxiety).

When this happens, the body tightens on the sensation, intensifying the pain. This then causes the body to tighten on the sensation even more, making the pain even greater.

Unfortunately, these methods do not dissolve the pain, although they may give you some temporary relief. That’s why these painful feelings keep arising.

The most effective thing you can do is to dissolve the layers of tension and expose the primary sensation, so that it too can be dissolved. You dissolve the layers of tension by relaxing the body.

Please refer to the Pain Free Tool outlined below.

Happy Zoning 🙂

Pain Free Tool 1: Welcome, Allow & Feel

When you are in physical or emotional pain, bring your attention gently to where the pain is being felt in the body. Welcome the sensation of pain, as if you are welcoming an old friend. Instead of calling it pain, just call it a sensation and do not judge this sensation as good or bad – it is just a sensation. Also, let go of any expectation – know that your purpose for doing “Pain Free” is a given. This will ensure that the body does not tense up further.

Gently place your attention on the sensation of anxiety. Welcome the feeling, without judgment, with your in-breath and allow yourself to feel the sensation to the full, on the out-breath. Keep repeating this until the tension surrounding the pain automatically dissolves, as the body relaxes with your attention. This happens by itself. There is nothing more for you to consciously do.

To ensure that the mind does not interfere with the process of relaxation and dissolving the tension, it is important to know that resistance to the process and expectations of outcomes will always cause the body to tense.

So, let go of expectations and surrender to the process. Simply follow the instructions above with an open mind and a willing attitude, and be free of fear and anxiety and the Sunday night dread…and have a fabulous week in the Zone!

If you’d like a recording that walks you through this Pain Free tool in detail, it is available at the Zonehigh Shop.